


McDavid's Ghost

by Bittersweet



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Chicago Blackhawks, Curses, Edmonton Oilers, Ghosts, M/M, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-07-28 18:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7651747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bittersweet/pseuds/Bittersweet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Curses are tricky things</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Connor?” Leon flipped the light switch in Connor’s room and frowned when the lights didn’t come on.

“Hi Leon,” Connor’s voice floated over to him from a corner of the room.

“Hey,” Leon said walking over. “You left in a hurry. Are you all right?” He could make out Connor’s hunched over form now that his eyes had adjusted to the dark. He stopped short when he reached him and realized that he could see through him and that he wasn’t sitting on anything, just floating there. “What—” he broke off, startled.

Connor looked up, his face a picture of misery. “I’m a ghost,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Leon asked after a second of trying to let his mind catch up. “How can you be a ghost Connor? You’re not—” He stopped short again. He didn’t know how to ask if Connor was dead. He’d been fine, as alive as any of them not ten minutes ago.

“I’m not dead,” Connor said shaking his head, anticipating what Leon had been going to say. “Not really.”

“How can you be a ghost then?”

“Did you ever see Casper the Friendly Ghost?” Connor asked.

“Yes,” Leon said curious about what Connor was getting at.

“Do you remember the part where he got to be alive again for a little while? And then he turned back into a ghost after that time was up?”

“But Casper _was_ dead.” Leon really didn’t know what was going on here. “And you’re… not?”

“Yeah,” Connor agreed. “When I was younger I was cursed. Essentially a ghost but without the dying. My parents hired a wizard to break the curse but he wasn’t able to. The best he could do was give me some time, make me corporeal again until I could find something stronger to break the curse. I could feel the spell falling apart in the living room and I… I panicked and… I don’t know what to do now Leon.”

Connor’s voice started to sound panicky and Leon pushed aside the fact that he didn’t believe in wizards or curses or ghosts and tried to think of how he could help. “Have you tried calling your parents?” he asked. “Maybe they can get that wizard to, like, re-corporealize you again or something.”

Connor’s expression brightened slightly. “Maybe,” he agreed. “But you’ll have to call them for me.” Leon must have looked confused because Connor floated closer to him and wiggled his fingers in front of his face. “Can’t touch anything,” he explained.

“Right.” Leon pulled his phone out of his pocket. “What’s the number?” He dialed it as Connor said the numbers and put it on speaker so that Connor could talk to them. It started to ring and then the screen flickered and died.

“Oops,” Connor said weakly. “I guess I’m still too upset. I fried the lights too.”

“Okay.” Leon took a deep breath, trying to think of what to do next. “Tell me the number again. I’ll go borrow a phone from one of the guys and try calling your parents.” He fished a pen out of his pocket and scribbled the number down on his hand. “Okay I’ll be right back.”

He left the room and headed back downstairs. He ran into Eberle talking on his phone just outside of the living room.

“Hey,” Eberle said interrupting his phone conversation as Leon reached him. “Is Connor okay? He left in such a hurry I thought—”

Leon nodded. “Yeah he’s fine. Can I borrow your phone? Please?” he added impatiently when Eberle just stared at him.

“Um yeah sure,” Eberle said. “Hey Taylor can I call you back?” he said into the phone. “Yeah you too.” He ended the call and passed the phone to Leon.

“Thanks man.” Leon hurried back upstairs, stopping at the top of the stairs to make the call. He hoped Connor’s parents would pick up the unfamiliar number. He stood in the hall listening to the phone ring and breathed a sigh of annoyance as it went to voicemail. “Sorry to call so late Mr. and Mrs. McDavid,” he said after the beep. “This is Connor’s teammate Leon Draisaitl. Connor’s had an episode and I really need you to call me back on this number as soon as you can.” He left Jordan’s number and hung up. He wasn’t sure if he should have left more details but he really didn’t really know what to tell them even if they already knew about the whole ghost thing. He was debating whether to go back to Connor right away and risk wrecking Jordan’s phone or if he should wait till he could tell him something concrete when it rang. He recognized Connor’s parents’ number and answered it, quickly explaining to Connor’s mom what had happened.

“Oh no,” she said when he had finished. “When the counter curse lasted this long I was hoping it meant the curse was broken. I’ll see if we can get in touch with the wizard who helped us before and call you back as soon as I know something. Please tell Connor that it’s going to be all right.”

Leon promised he would and the call ended. He slid Jordan’s phone into his pocket and headed back to Connor, taking the chance that the phone would be fine so long as it was in rest mode while he was talking to Connor.

“What did my parents say?” Connor asked anxiously when Jordan stepped back into the room.

“I talked to your mom,” Leon said. “She said everything’s going to be fine. She’s going to get in touch with the wizard that you dealt with before and she’ll call back as soon as she can.”

Connor breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for helping me with this Leon.”

“Don’t worry about it Davo,” Leon said. “Now I just have to figure out how to explain to Jordan that I need to keep his phone for the night,” he joked.

“You could just ask.”

Leon jumped at the sound of Jordan’s voice behind him. “Um hi Jordan,” he said trying to stand so he’d block Jordan’s view of Connor. “Connor and I were just rehearsing for a… um… commercial…” If he hadn’t already known that that was a weak explanation the expression on Jordan’s face would have told him.

Connor floated up on Leon’s left. “Please don’t tell anyone Jordan. My parents are talking to someone who can help and I don’t want to start a panic.”

“Of course I won’t tell anyone,” Jordan responded immediately. “I’ll get rid of the rest of the guys and then will you tell me what is actually going on here?”

Connor nodded and Jordan headed back downstairs.

“Commercial huh?” Connor looked at Leon.

“It was the only thing I could think of,” Leon defended himself. Connor laughed and Leon thought that his ridiculous cover story had been worth it.

 

Jordan stumbled out of his room early the next morning, headed to the kitchen for coffee. He leaned against the counter, waiting the coffee to finish dripping. He couldn’t believe any of this was happening. That he was actually waiting for a call about a wizard to help a friend of his who happened to be a ghost. The coffee finished and as Jordan was pouring himself a cup Connor floated into the room.

“Morning,” Jordan said.

“Morning,” Connor answered. “Any news?” he asked hopefully.

Jordan shook his head. “Nothing yet but it’s still early.”

“Right,” Connor said nodding.

The silence started to stretch awkwardly and Jordan pounced on his phone when it started to ring. “Hi Mrs. McDavid,” he answered it. “I’m going to switch you to speaker.” He did and Connor’s mother’s voice filled the room.

“How are you holding up sweetheart?”

“I’m okay mom,” Connor said. “Were you able to find out anything from the wizard?”

“I’m so sorry honey. Your father was out all night trying to find him but there’s been no sign of him.”

Connor’s ghostly form slumped forward. “It’s okay mom, at least you tried.”

“We’re going to keep looking. He can’t be the only wizard in the world.” His mother’s voice crackled and Jordan looked at Connor uneasily, remembering what Leon had said had happened to his phone last night.

“Thanks mom,” Connor said trying to sound cheerful. “I’m sure we can come up with something. Thank dad for me?”

They ended the call and Jordan stared at Connor. “What do we do now?”

“Your mom’s right,” Leon said from the kitchen door. “He can’t be the only wizard in the world.”

“Right,” Jordan said trying to stay positive for Connor’s sake. “Between us and your parents we’re bound to find someone who can help.”

 

“What about that one?” Connor asked gesturing towards the link from where he was hovering behind Jordan’s shoulders. Jordan clicked on it and scrolled through the page. “No good,” he declared. “Not unless we’re having a birthday party. How can it be so hard to find one reputable wizard?”

“I don’t know,” Leon grumbled. “But it’s not any easier finding anything on how to break a curse. I keep finding references to Disney movies and true loves kiss.”

Jordan laughed. “Well maybe that would work. Have you found your true love Connor?”

“I’m nineteen,” Connor pointed out. “And, also, a ghost. How would I kiss anybody?”

“Good point,” Leon acknowledged. “Moving on.”

The room fell into silence again with Connor floating from one to the other trying to help however he could, which was very little.

“Maybe I should just accept the fact that I’m going to be stuck this way forever,” Connor said two hours later when they still hadn’t found anything. Jordan’s computer screen started to flicker and Connor drifted away from it.

“What?” Jordan’s head jerked back up and he stared at Connor in disbelief.

“No way are we giving up on you!” Leon growled.

“How could you even think that?” Jordan asked.

“But if we can’t find anyone to help us—”

“Then we’ll do it ourselves,” Leon interrupted him. “There’s a few really old books on this site that deal with curses and stuff,” he held his IPad up so they could see the ancient leather covers of the books. “And they’re at a shop here in Edmonton. So I’m going to go pick them up and we will figure this thing out.” He glared at Connor like he was daring him to give up.

Connor’s expression brightened a little. “Do you really think we can do this?”

“If we can find the stuff in one of these books,” Jordan said firmly. “We will fix this Connor.”

“Thanks guys,” Connor said. “I kind of wish I could hug you but…”

“We’ll take a rain check for when you’re not a ghost,” Jordan said.

“I’ll be back,” Leon said grabbing his coat and heading out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

“I don’t know Leon,” Jordan said as he flipped through one of the thick musty books that Leon had brought back. “It’s kind of like this thing was written in code, half the words that google translates don’t make any sense. Do either of you know anyone that actually knows Latin?”

“That’s not Latin,” Leon said frowning at a page in his own book. “I think I might have something here.”

“Really?” the others quickly leaned over to stare at the page.

“What does it say?” Connor asked. “Can it cure me or whatever?”

“What’s that?” Jordan asked touching a strange symbol drawn into the margin.

Leon was writing notes on a sheet of paper and shook his head. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “Okay,” he said putting down the pen and picking up the paper. “So here’s what I’ve got. This spell is specifically to bring someone back from the dead. I don’t think it’s going to be too difficult to set up even though we need a lot of weird stuff.”

“But Connor’s not really dead,” Jordan pointed out.

“Yeah,” Leon said. “But I don’t think that really matters. It doesn’t say anything about needing the person’s body, just calling their spirit into this world from the other realm. Since we’ve already got Connor’s ghost here I think we can skip that part and just go right to the part of the spell that deals with restoring the spirit’s mass.”

Jordan was reading the list over Leon’s shoulder and frowned. “I don’t know guys. This sounds dangerous.” He didn’t like the look of some of those ingredients. He didn’t know what any of them were but he was sure they weren’t good.

“We have to try something,” Leon pointed out.

“Yeah but—”

“Please Jordan?” Connor pleaded. “If this can make it so that I can play hockey again I have to try it.”

“Okay,” Jordan said after a long pause. “But we’re going to need help. We’re two people short for your spell thing.”

 

It had taken them a while to get all the ingredients they needed and get Connor’s living room set up for the ritual so it was dark before they were ready to begin. The spell called for them to form a pentagram in the centre of the room, the spirit, in this case Connor, forming the top point and Jordan, Leon, Darnell and Ryan at the other points. Leon started the spell and cued the others for when to do their parts. Slowly a shimmering globe of yellow light started to form in the centre of the pentagram. It grew steadily until it was about the size of a grapefruit then the light started to split away from the ball in spikes. Jordan was about to ask whether it was supposed to be doing that, which was ridiculous since none of the others would know any better than he did what was normal for a curse breaking spell, when it suddenly shot from the centre of the pentagram crashed wildly around the room for a second then slammed into Connor’s chest. Connor shouted in pain and double over, his ghostly form flickering.

“Connor!” Leon rushed to him but couldn’t do anything to help as his hands passed right through him.

“Is it working?” Darnell asked looking worried.

“He shouldn’t be in pain should he?” Ryan asked. “What does the sell say Leon?”

Leon grabbed the book from the coffee table that they had moved aside to make room for the ritual and stared down at the yellowed pages.

“Well?” Jordan demanded as Connor continued to writhe in pain.

“I don’t know! We followed the—” he stopped short. “Oh no.”

“What? Leon what did—”

“Which way’s north?” Leon asked his voice strained.

“Why?” Ryan asked pointing out the direction, away from Connor and the top point of the pentagram.

“We placed the pentagram the wrong direction!” Leon dropped the book in dismay. “He’s being sent into the spirit world!”

“How long is that going to take?” Darnell asked.

“I don’t know it doesn’t say!”

Jordan’s phone started ringing and he stepped away from the others to answer it. “Hey Taylor,” he said wishing Taylor was here with him. “Can I call you back?” The stress must have shown in his voice as Taylor asked what was wrong. Jordan flinched as Connor cried out again and he spilled the entire story.

“Shit,” Taylor said when Jordan had told him what had happened.

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you just ask me?”

“What?” Jordan frowned and then the memory of a conversation they had had shortly after the two of them had started playing together crept to the surface. Taylor had told him he had a touch of second sight. Jordan had thought he was pulling his leg but now… “You’re not a wizard are you?”

“No,” Taylor said. “I don’t have that kind of power but there are a few in the NHL.”

The sounds from behind him abruptly stopped and Jordan turned around. Connor had disappeared. “Oh shit.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Jordan!” Jordan snapped back to attention as Taylor shouted at him over the phone. “Tell me what’s happened!”

“Connor’s gone,” Jordan said feeling a bit numb. “He just… disappeared.” His teammates were watching him now, like they were expecting him to have an answer, some way to fix this.

“Okay,” Taylor said sounding eerily calm, although the fact that Jordan was one step away from a nervous breakdown might have contributed to that. “I want you to call Toews, tell him what happened.”

“Why Toews?” Jordan asked as he scribbled down the number that Taylor gave him.

“He’s a witch,” Taylor explained. “They’re magic tends to be a little darker than wizards so I think he might be your best hope at this point.”

“Right,” Jordan said. “Okay. I ‘ll give Toews a call.”

“Good,” Taylor said. “Call me back as soon as you’re done talking to him okay?”

They hung up and Jordan punched in Toews’ number. It rang a half dozen times before the call was picked.

“Hello?” Toews voice said, sounding like he had just woken up. Jordan cringed as he realized it was after midnight which meant in Chicago it was after one.

“Hi Toews this is Jordan Eberle, sorry to call so late but we have a little bit of an emergency and Taylor Hall said that you might be able to help?” He held his breath hoping that Taylor was right about this.

“Um yeah, don’t worry about it,” there was the rustling sound of blankets, “what’s the emergency?”

The moment of truth. Toews was either going to be able to help or he was going to think that this was a prank or Jordan was drunk or maybe both. Jordan explained what had happened and listened patiently while Toews read him the riot act about messing with magic.

“I know we messed up,” Jordan said when Toews had finished. “Now can you help us fix it?”

“Maybe,” Toews said after a long pause where Jordan worried the call had gotten disconnected. “Don’t touch or move anything in the room until I get there okay? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

The call ended and Jordan stared down at the phone in his hand. Okay. Maybe this would work out yet.

 

Jordan opened the door for Toews just before noon the next day and was not surprised to see Kane there with him. “Thank you so much for coming,” he said leading the way into the living room. They had touched nothing as Toews had instructed and the four of them had stayed in the house all night, though none of them had slept.

Toews stopped short as they stepped into the living room, Kane, who was following behind, nearly bumping into him.

“Ugh it stinks in here,” Kane said wrinkling his nose.

Toews stared at the room then marched into the kitchen, Jordan and Kane following. Leon, Darnell, and Ryan were sitting listlessly at the table.

“Which one of you idiots did that,” Toews demanded glaring at them and jerking his hand towards the living room.

They stared at him for a second and then Leon slowly raised his hand.

“Show me the spell,” Toews snapped, stalking back into the living room. The others reluctantly followed.

Leon showed him the book as well as his own notes from the spell and Toews started swearing.

“Hey Jonny,” Kane interrupted as Toews was reading them the riot act. “Maybe cool it a bit. They were just trying to help their friend.”

“They shouldn’t have been messing around with this stuff,” Jonny insisted. “This is old black magic. They should have gotten help.”

“We tried,” Jordan retorted getting annoyed with Toews attitude. “We tried to find someone who could help but we couldn’t. So we did what we could.”

“And now you might have to live with the consequences,” Toews said. “I’ll do what I can to fix this mess but I think you should know it’s a long shot.”

“What?” Ryan looked upset at this news.

“We can’t just leave him… wherever he is,” Leon said. “Maybe something in one of these books—”

“Didn’t you learn anything?” Toews demanded.

“Jonny,” Kane said again, touching Toews arm.

Toews sighed. “Let’s just get started.”

 

“Okay,” Toews said thanking Patrick as he passed him a cup of coffee. “Here’s what we’re going to do.” He outlined the plan and the others stared at him in shock.

“You’re going to kill Leon?” Jordan said staring at him. He was sure he hadn’t heard that right. Even Kane looked startled.

“Basically,” Toews said.

“It was my idea,” Leon offered.

“He’s actually got a fair amount of talent,” Toews said grudgingly.

“Why?” Ryan asked. “I mean why would you offer to let him kill you?”

“Well it is kind of my fault that Connor’s stuck there,” Leon said with a shrug. “Toews said it would work better if someone with a magical connection went through and since he’s going to have to control the spell from this side I seemed like the logical choice.”

“This sounds dangerous,” Jordan said. “Are you sure—”

“Yes,” Leon said cutting him off. “And the longer we put this off the harder it’s going to be so let’s get started.”

They set up the spell, Toews watching closely and making sure that everything was exactly the way it was supposed to be. The spell was similar to the one that Leon, Jordan, Ryan, Nail, and Connor had set up. Toews and Leon sat in the centre of the pentagram. Toews had a knife from the kitchen that he had done some sort of ritual cleansing on and as they reached what felt like a climatic point of the spell he pressed the tip of the knife to his thumb and as the blood welled up he touched his thumb to Leon’s forehead and Leon slumped over, motionless.


	4. Chapter 4

The spirit world was a grainy world full of shades of grain that made Leon feel like he was inside of an old movie. He looked around, trying to figure out where he should be looking for Connor. A slow wind rustled through the fallen leaves at his feet and he had the odd felling that he should follow. He shook his head slightly at the insanity of following a breeze but he followed anyway. As he walked along, the breeze letting him know he was going in the right direction with a scuffle of leaves, he wondered if this was the reality of the spirit world or if it was something that Connor had created though he couldn’t imagine why Connor’s mind would give him this. Unless of course it was a construct from Leon’s own mind. Maybe this was his minds way of interpreting the idea that the spirit world would be dull. But he was just being weird.

The wind stopped and so did he. He was standing at the edge of the forest. In the clearing ahead of him were a bunch of squat grey men with long beards, he counted seven of them. They were pushing an iron cage along and Leon’s eyes widened as he saw that it was Connor that they had in the cage. He was surprised to see that instead of looking ghostly and translucent, he looked as solid as Leon himself did and in full colour. He was too far away to see if Connor was hurt at all but the fact that he was standing was a good sign. Now Leon just had to figure out how to get Connor out of there. He studied the dwarves again. They outnumbered him and each carried a large axe attached to his belt, the gleam of the metal bright in the otherwise gray world. Leon followed them quietly, keeping to the tree line as much as possible, trying to think of some way of distracting them so that he could get to the cage without fighting them. He saw his opportunity as they headed into the woods on the other side of the clearing and stopped, seeming to argue with each other about something ahead. Leon crept forward and saw that there was a large stone directly in the centre of the path, something that clearly shouldn’t have been there. If Leon squinted he started to think he could make out a face, very distorted and far from human proportions, and the thing started to make him uneasy as he stared. He looked away, back to the dwarves. They seemed to have made up their minds about something and six of them were approaching the rock, leaving only one of the dwarves to guard the prisoner. Leon grabbed a heavy stick to use as a weapon and started towards the cage. Connor turned around at that point and Leon motioned for him to be quiet as he crept towards the remaining dwarf. Connor started talking to the dwarf, clearly trying to keep its attention on him and keep him from noticing Leon. Leon got right up behind the dwarf and, in a move that would have got him thrown out of the NHL, brought the heavy stick down on the dwarf’s head. He caught the dwarf before he could hit the ground and lowered him to it carefully so that its body wouldn’t make any noise to alert the others. He carefully removed the axe from the dwarf’s belt and motioned for Connor to step back from the lock. Leon lifted the axe over his head, sparing a quick prayer that this would work, and brought it down on the lock with as much force as he could muster. The lock broke and he wrenched the door open, Connor wasting no time jumping out of the cage. The sound had alerted the dwarves and they had abandoned their attempts to move the rock, running towards Leon and Connor with their axes in their hands and a blood curdling scream coming from their mouths.

Leon and Connor took off in the opposite direction, back the way the Leon had come. Their longer legs gave them an advantage but not as much as Leon would have hoped as they had to push to stay ahead of the surprisingly quick dwarves. If they were to stumble or stop the dwarves would be on them and Leon didn’t want to think about what would happen then.

“How long does it take for a minute to pass?” Leon shouted, frustrated that he couldn’t see a way out for him and Connor. He knew Toews couldn’t hear him but he hoped maybe he’d get the message anyway.

“Where are we going?” Connor shouted at him.

“I don’t know yet!” Leon shouted back. “Just keep running!” His foot slid out from under him and he crashed to the ground. A heavy wind picked up suddenly, reaching back to the dwarves and slowing their progress enough for Leon to get back to his feet, Connor helping him up. The wind stayed with them for a few more seconds and then died away as abruptly as it had come up. Ahead of them a crack appeared on the horizon and a bright yellow light flooded into the gray world.

“We’re almost there!” Leon shouted and he forced himself to put on one extra burst of speed. He didn’t know what would happen if the dwarves followed them through that rift, or even if they could, but he didn’t want to find out. The next second he was hurtling through the portal, Connor right beside him, and landing in Connor’s living room, suddenly stationary and back in his body on the floor.

“Did it work?” he demanded sitting up and looking around for Connor. He was relieved to see him floating and translucent only a few feet away. He realized he was still holding the axe he had taken from the dwarves, which was slightly terrifying when he thought about it, and set it on the floor before getting up and walking over to Connor.

“Should he still be a ghost?” Ryan asked when everyone had finished celebrating and welcoming Leon and Connor back.

Toews nodded. “But that parts actually the easier fix,” he said. “Would you like to do this part Leon?”

Leon stared at him. “But I don’t know what to do.”

“It’ll work better with someone closer to Connor and I can talk you through it.” Toews motioned everyone back and started wiping the complicated chalk symbols off of the floor, replacing them with a simple white circle. “Both of you need to be inside the circle.”

Leon stepped into the circle and Connor floated in.

“Good,” Toews said. “Just give me a second,” he said something in French while walking around the circle, his right hand held over the chalk line, and a crackle of electricity thrummed up from the circle.

Leon felt his skin prickle as the energy came up around them and he was surprised to see that Connor looked a little more solid than he had. Toews’ spell must be working, he thought. He wasn’t sure why he did it but he stepped forward and kissed Connor. He felt strangely incorporeal, which made sense since he was a ghost, but then an instant later became pleasantly solid. Connor stumbled a bit, suddenly dropping from where he had been floating and Leon happily wrapped his arms around him to catch him. It took a minute for him to realize that the thrum of energy had disappeared and his teammates were applauding. He took a step back from Connor, though his right arm stayed around Connor’s waist, and looked around.

“What just happened?” he asked feeling confused.

“True love’s kiss,” Toews explained looking pleased with himself. “I didn’t think it would be that easy when I got here but then the fact that you were willing to go into the spirit world to get him and seeing the two of you together after you got back I was fairly certain it would.”

“It’s a good thing you’re as much a hopeless romantic as Jonny is,” Kane teased with a fond smile at Toews.

Toews blushed slightly but smiled back. “Anyway,” he said to Connor. “You shouldn’t have any more trouble with that whole curse thing but if you run into any more problems like this please call me.”

“Thank you,” Connor said. “We will.”

“Good.” He looked at Leon. “I think you should consider getting someone to train you. If you’d like I can see if there’s someone near here who would be suitable?”

“I’d like that,” Leon said gratefully. He couldn’t help think that this whole thing would have gone a lot smoother if he’d known even half of what he’d learned from Toews in this short time.

“Do you have a safe in the house?” Toews asked and Connor nodded. “I’d strongly suggest that you lock this,” he picked up the axe, “and these,” he gestured to the stack of ancient spell books, “up.”

They took the axe and the books to the safe and locked them away before cleaning up all the spell paraphernalia that was scattered about the living room. Once everything was cleaned up and it looked like a living room again Toews and Kane said their goodbyes, extracting promises that they would stay in touch, Toews because he was still concerned about the entire magical disaster aspect and Kane because he seemed to have a pathological need to be friends with everyone.

After Toews and Kane had gone the others left one by one until it was just Connor and Leon alone in the house.

“So,” Connor said blushing.

“Yeah,” Leon said shifting awkwardly.

“You don’t really think it was true love do you?” Connor blurted out. “I mean we’ve never even talked about dating let alone actually gone on a date.”

“We could. I mean if you wanted to?”

“On a date?”

“Yeah.”

Connor started to smile and nodded. “I’d like that.”

“Really?” Leon started to smile too.

“Really.” Connor leaned in and kissed him lightly.


End file.
